Concerns over ‘insanity’ of Shell South Africa fracking plans

Western Cape, South Africa (CNN) — South Africa has an energy deficit on its hands. Too many people want fuel for their cars and electricity for their homes, and the country is struggling to keep up with demand.

To help ease this perceived crisis the big companies want to start drilling for natural gas using a controversial drilling technique called fracking. Under the plans the drilling will be done in one of the most remote and beautiful places in South Africa, the Karoo.

Fracking has caused controversy and protests across the globe, and South Africa is no exception. To release the natural gas the companies drill down and sideways into a rock called shale, and pump large quantities of water and other chemicals to release the gas.

Anti-fracking campaigners warn that this could have an irrevocable impact on this semi-desert region.

Jonathan Deal has written a book on the Karoo and he is now leading the campaign against fracking.

“It is a special place, it is irreplaceable” he told CNN, just outside the town of Sutherland in the Karoo. “My concern is that we would make decisions chasing fossil fuels in this country where this generation is making a decision that is going to affect unborn generations who would not be happy about it, when we should perhaps be pursuing renewable energies or looking at different energy mixes.”

Muna Lakhani from Earthlife Africa warns that water in the area could become contaminated as a result of fracking. “The chances of damaging aquifers is very high and South Africa is a water scarce country,” he told CNN in Cape Town.

“The Karoo happens to be the driest part of our country so to threaten our water supply with a system that uses massive amounts of water that can never be cleaned up, that contains toxic chemicals, seems to be insanity of the first order,” he added.

Shell South Africa, one of the main companies lobbying to begin fracking, denies there is any “insanity.” Bonang Mohale, the company’s chairman, told CNN’s Robyn Curnow, that: “It is possible to have responsible fracking with respect to the environment and to the people of the Karoo.”

“The first commitment that we made was never to compete with the people of the Karoo for their water needs in this pristine and ecologically sensitive area so we, in the initial stages, certainly when we drill the first well, bring portable water in from outside.”

“The risks to the environment are well understood, well articulated and I think they can be totally and utterly mitigated, especially the issues of water contamination, the aquifers, and the scarcity of water.”

Sutherland is a small town on the edge of the area that could be affected by fracking. It is so small you can stand on one side of the town and see straight down the main road to the other side. But despite its literal size, it has a big reputation because of its internationally recognized astronomical observatory.

Tourists and scientists flock here but even so, the place is quiet.

Jurgens Wagener runs a bed and breakfast in Sutherland and every evening he takes his guests into the Karoo to see the bright canopy of stars. He acknowledges that the town needs jobs but he is worried about the long term impact of fracking on his community.

“In the ten years we have been here I can say that it developed very much into a tourist attraction. We are just very concerned that if fracking does take place, there might be a boom for a very short period but what is it going to be like after that?”

According to a recent report by a South African think tank, paid for by Shell, the whole of South Africa and towns like Sutherland will get an economic boost if fracking goes ahead.

“The successful development of the shale gas reserves would result in approximately $11 billion to $30 billion contribution to the South African GDP”, Rob Jeffrey from Econometrix told CNN. “In South African terms that is between three and 10% of South Africa’s GDP, it is enormous. By the same token there would be a significant impact on employment.”

But others believe Econometrix’s employment figures have been exaggerated.

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Bonus Group: More news of BG diaspora.
At the Annual General Meeting of Hurricane Energy plc held on 3rd of June, Ms Beverley Smith was elected as a Director of the Company with 99.85% of the votes in favour, 0.15% votes against.
Having previous experience as a VP and overseeing a hasty retreat from Algeria at the now defunct BG Group, will doubtless be valuable when exploring rock bottom and/or fractured basement on the Atlantic Margin!

Bogus Group: Would this be the same managers and geologists that made the competent business development and exploration decision to develop the Knarr Field? A venture that failed to meet its potential, both in terms of daily production and field life. In fact, I recall the UK based BG Group General Manager for Europe was a geologist.

Bonus Group: Useless degree????.
'Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand. Furthermore, managers at both the middle level and senior level need to be well versed in this subject area in order to make competent business development and exploration decisions.'
These would be the same 'job for life', middle to senior level managers and competent geologists who at BG Group, for example, assured work at a cost of £200MM which later cost the company £2Bn because it was wrong (according to the Chief Operating Officer at the time), and also spent more than five years working in an asset following corrupt workflows?
From your post on this Blog, I see that your time at a 'reputable university' was well spent in learning how to be exuberant with punctuation.
That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers!

Useless degree????: I was reading your blog today and saw a reference to 'sedimentology' being a 'useless degree'. I do not believe any reputable university offers such a degree. Sedimentology is a sub-discipline within the field of geology. Reputable universities do offer degrees in geology. It is possible to specialize in sedimentology I suppose, but you need to be enrolled in a geology program to do so. I know, I am a geologist, among other things.

Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand.

Furthermore, managers at both the middle level and senior level need to be well versed in this subject area in order to make competent business development and exploration decisions.

That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers.

Bonus Group: USA USA USA Hardly surprising is it. The company is overrun by sycophantic, grossly over paid, sniggering middle managers with numerous degrees in sedimentology, or some subject as equally useless, with little to no technical ability or technical background, who are dependent upon technical staff who likewise have little, to no, practical experience and who have only ever seen a rig laid up in the Firth of Forth in photographs, or when they went for a jolly with their wives for an outing one day. They spend their time documenting 'Lessons Learned' on fancy spreadsheets which are then filed in some obtuse filing system and they never learn the damn lessons!

USA USA USA: Missed opportunities is not as bad as the botched opportunities. RDS has always claimed that there is limited capital and resources to exploit every opportunity. We all agree. But the fact that so many recent projects have failed to deliver production promises, that is more clearly a lack of management and leadership. Prelude? Penn Chem? Olympus? and the many others that have not delivered on schedule, cost or production. Then there are the projects that move forward with little to no assurance of these vital front end loading to verify that the promise is realistic. It is just more of the same - Bloat / Cut / Reorg and repeat...